"The Board of Trustees has to change," Barron told the largely African-American crowd Wednesday at the Crown Heights college.

"This is a racist, rednecked right-winger who's sitting on the Board of Trustees. Make sure you write a letter and say he must be removed."

Barron complained he was disrespected at Tuesday's groundbreaking event, initially refused entry, given a seat in the audience instead of with other dignitaries and assigned a speaking time he thought came too late.

He eventually took the microphone and spoke anyway, complaining that officials had not acknowledged the City Council in their remarks. "I'm the [Council's] chair of higher education. I made it happen," said Barron referring to the renovation.

But Barron's remark prompted Wiesenfeld to heckle him as "a disgrace" who was not scheduled to speak.

"If I stood up as an unscheduled speaker at an event, I would qualify as a thug," Wiesenfeld said Wednesday. "He doesn't get a pass because he's a former Black Panther and a revolutionary.

"His is nothing but rabble-rousing rhetoric of dubious value," said Wiesenfeld. "This is not a politician. This is what you call a hater."

Barron told the Medgar Evers audience that "if I was standing like a thug, then every one of you is a thug because I was standing just the way you stand."

Wiesenfeld was appointed to the CUNY board by Gov. George Pataki in 1999, despite allegations he referred to blacks as "savages" and Hasidic Jews as "thieves." He has said the allegations were motivated by a personal grudge. Wiesenfeld denied that his anger at Barron had anything to do with race, adding that CUNY has more minority students than ever.